CYNOPSISDIGITAL
03.09.16

Good morning. It’s Wednesday March 9, 2016, and this is your first early morning digital briefing.

 
Netflix and Hulu are already getting on the VR bandwagon, so this was probably inevitable. According to a recent job posting – first reported by Upload VR – Amazon is searching for a software developer to work on an Amazon Video virtual reality app. And this may mean more than just watching existing Amazon content through a VR headset: The posting mentions a full VR team nestled within Amazon Video, which will “explore and create the platform and interface for immersive storytelling.” In other words, we may be looking at VR experiences created exclusively for Amazon. That would be a watershed development in the history of VR – so far, essentially no one has tried to sell VR experiences to customers as part of a subscription package. As always, the question is whether or not people would pay for it. Amazon may give us the answer.

 
As part of its recently-launched Share the Screen initiative to boost female creators, the video platform Vimeo has announced a series of events set to take place at this month’s South by Southwest festival. (One such event is March 11’s Share the Screen Staff Picks Cinema, where several works from female creators, as chosen by Vimeo staff, will be screened.) Vimeo also announced a development partnership with the media incubator Big Vision Empty Wallet, which will fund select participants in its Kickstarty Diversity program. Finally, Vimeo has unveiled its first Share the Screen filmmaker investment, with the acquisition of Ava’s Impossible Things, a film by Marina Rice Bader. “Bader caught our eye last year when her film Anatomy of a Love Seen [was] released exclusively on Vimeo On Demand,” Sam Toles, Vimeo’s Head of Global Content Acquisitions and Distribution, told Cynopsis Digital. “[The film] saw success within the passionate, yet underserved LGBT audience. When we got wind of her new film releasing later this year we knew it would be a perfect fit for this initiative.”
 
Amazon is set to launch the fashion-and-beauty-oriented Style Code Live, a live, unscripted thirty-minute series, set to run daily at www.amazon.com/stylecodelive. For the time being at least, Amazon is trying out a novel monetization model: No ads, no subs – just a product gallery at the bottom of the video player, allowing viewers to shop for products from the show. It’s the second time in less than two weeks that Amazon has launched a fashion-heavy unscripted series outside of the traditional Amazon Prime subscription model; in late February, the company launched a free, ad-supported version of The Fashion Fund.
 

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE

 
Facebook has been pushing its live video feature pretty hard of late, but the company seems to recognize that some people have a limit. Many users have experienced a barrage of notifications alerting them to brands’ and publishers’ latest live-streams; those alerts aren’t always welcome. That’s why the social media giant is developing a new setting that will let users disable all notifications relating to live video. Facebook told Digiday that the setting will be rolled out in the next few weeks.
 
Vessel is taking a cue from the likes of Hulu and YouTube. The streaming video startup announced that it will launch an ad-free SVOD version of its platform, priced at $19.99 a year. The company is also experimenting with the idea of full-year exclusives, including content from creators such as Brittani Louise Taylore and Jeromre ASF. An ad-supported option will remain available to non-subscribers.
 
The social video analytics firm OpenSlate announced that it has launched a new audience planning tool, which it says allows advertisers to program and size custom media networks on YouTube. According to a release, the tool allows marketers to organize YouTube’s inventory into TV-like programming slates, and then estimate the reach and demographic composition available for their ad dollars. It’s available for free at www.OpenSlateData.com. "There’s never been a way for TV-minded ad buyers to understand the scale of YouTube with a measure that they can relate to,” OpenSlate CEO Mike Henry told Cynopsis Digital. “We developed The OpenSlate YouTube GRP Planning Tool to facilitate the flow of media dollars in the direction that their audience is headed."

 
Stay hungry, folks. Netflix has renewed Chef’s Table, its David Gelb-created docu-series profiling renowned chefs. The series has been picked up for a second, third, and fourth season. Season two debuts May 27.

As part of its recent partnership with Fox Sports, the live VR company NextVR has announced that the company will power the virtual reality broadcast of quarterfinal, semifinal, and championship games during the 2016 Big East Men’s Basketball Tournament, which is set to run today through March 12. The games will be available to Samsung Gear VR users through the NextVR app. "You’ll feel as if you’re sitting in courtside seats,” Brad Allen, NextVR’s Executive Chairman, told Cynopsis Digital. “TV can provide great views of course, but they can’t provide the immersive experience VR brings.” So what improvements are yet to be made to the medium? Tech is a big factor, says Allen. “The tech continues to improve and as mobile phones add chips like the new Snapdragon 820 chip from Qualcomm, which is the first purpose-built ‘system on a chip’ for VR. Additionally, as the headsets get lighter and more conformable we expect adoption to really start to take off.”

 
Fullcube, a startup that has developed new tech to aid in the automation and integration OTT and digital offerings, announced that it has raised $1.15 million in a new funding round from angel investors. “Through the bundling of digital content, commerce, event and experiential assets designed to engage consumers, the fullcube platform maximizes recurring revenues against the cost per acquisition for clients’ enthusiast audience,” said fullcube CEO David Hickson in a release.

 
Join Cynopsis Digital at our networking awards breakfast on Thursday March 24 in NYC as we shine a spotlight on the best of the best. Mingle with our Top Women in Digital and other industry professionals while enjoying a mimosa (or two) – what more could you want? Save your spot today: http://www.cynopsis.com/event/2016-twd-event/

 
The ListenFirst Television Interest (TVI) Rating (TM) is a standardized measurement of the most buzzed-about TV programs on linear TV and streaming services. A complement to ListenFirst’s other syndicated data products (such as the ListenFirst Digital Audience Rating – TV), the metrics included in the rating are the purest form of showing interest digitally, since they’re organic actions that are largely unaffected by paid media. Programs that surface on the TVI leaderboards are the most hashtagged on Facebook, Google+, and Tumblr, as well as most searched for on Wikipedia (used as a proxy for organic search volume).
 
Streaming Only (2/29/16 – 3/6/16)
 
 
Source: ListenFirst. The TVI Rating aggregates metrics that measure organically generated activity by fans of the TV show. The metric includes total volume of official hashtag mentions on Facebook, Google+, and Tumblr, along with Wikipedia page views (as a proxy for organic search volume) for a show as a percentage of the total volume of the same activities for all shows.

According to a forecast from the research firm eMarketer, 2017 will be the first year that digital ad spends eclipse TV ad spends. eMarketer speculates that total digital ad spending – fueled by mobile spends, and led by Google and Facebook – will hit $77.4 billion next year, accounting for 33.4% of total ad spending. TV ad spending, on the other hand, is projected to hit $72.0 billion.
 
This just in: SVOD services are popular. According to a report from Brian Wiesner, Senior Research Analyst at Pivotal Research Group, subscription video-on-demand services now penetrate more than 50% of U.S. TV homes. Interestingly enough, this comes in conjunction with gains for some traditional TV networks. (Both Time Warner and Crown Media cable networks have seen notable year-over-year growth.) Wieser compiled his analysis based on Nielsen Data. You can learn more about the report here.
 
 

 
The digital measurement and marketing company Quantcast has promoted Stephen Collins to President and CFO. Collins served as Quantcast’s CFO for the nine months prior to his promotion, before which he served as a part-time strategic and operational advisor for the company. “President” is a newly created position at Quantcast. In that capacity, Collins will lead global sales, marketing, operations and finance.
 

A CYNOPSIS MESSAGE

 
Yesterday, in honor of International Women’s Day, Google launched #OneDayIWill, a 13-part video collage featuring women around the world. And even though the vids are brief, it was quite an endeavor: The filmmakers traveled to cities around the world, ranging from New Delhi to Jakarta. If you happened to click on Google.com’s Google Doodle yesterday, then you already saw the #OneDayIWill introductory video. If you missed it, you can check it out here.

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JOB OPENING: SALES MGR, DIGITAL AD SALES/NeuLion/NYC: Resp for identifying, contacting, & closing prospects. 1-2 yrs dig. ad sales-related exp, pref in B2B envir. Exp w/ high-vol prospecting thru email mktg & cold calling. Confident, assertive self-starter, orgnzd & goal driven. Resume: [email protected] (3/12)

JOB OPENING: AD SALES RESEARCH, ANALYST/HGTV/DIY NYC: Successful candidate will have strong writing/storytelling skills, be curious and show early signs of leadership, we are looking 1 year exp or intern equivalent in national cable or broadcast network Ad Sales For more detail www.scrippsnetworks.com J100806 (3/11)

JOB OPENING: CAMPAIGN SPECIALIST/NBCU/LA: Digital Campaign Specialist to support trafficking, troubleshooting & reporting of assigned digital properties. 1+ yrs sales ops exp. Full info/apply HERE 3/11

JOB OPENING: DIR PROGRAMMING/SundanceNow (DocClub)/NYC: Lead content strategy for the emerging indie film OTT business. 5+ yrs exp curating &/or acquiring film/TV content. The candidate will combine deep film knwldg, curatorial vision, & results-driven prgrmng tactics. Full info/apply HERE (3/11)

JOB OPENING: MGR CONTENT & PARTNERSHIPS NEWCAST/ZenithOptimedia/NYC: Seeks exp’d, bi-lingual (Spanish & Engl.) mgr to dvlp & execute multicultural cross-platform content solutions for key accounts. 3-5 yrs integrated mktg/branded content exp. Apply HERE (3/10)

JOB OPENING: DIR/SR MGR, SOCIAL STRATEGY/A&E/NY: Manage the translation of mktg strategy to actionable social strategy. 5+ yrs mktg exp in an entertainment or social environment. Strong agency mgmt. exp. Full info/apply HERE (3/10)

JOB OPENING: DIR of DIGITAL and SOCIAL CONTENT/WE tv/NYC: 10+ yrs exp in dig/social media and/or mktg, plus 4-5 yrs mgmt exp. Resp: Evaluating, plnning, organizing, mnging and contributing to all dig cntent initiatives and soc media channels. Full info/apply HERE (3/10)

JOB OPENING: SR SPECIALIST, DIG MKTG/CMMB/NYC: Optimize rev growth thru strategic dig mktg & data base mngmnt. 3+ yrs exp dig mktg. Proven ability to dvlp/eploy dig mktg strategies across paid channels, email, & social ntwrks. 4-5 month contract. Resume HERE (3/10) 

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